President Johnson continued to pour money into the battle without enough means to cover the expenses. In addition, Johnson started a number of domestic programs that became known as the Great Society. He did not raise taxes to help cover these programs. The result was price increases and a severe increase in the federal deficit. The economy of the United States then began to fall.
3. ["Lessons of Vietnam by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, ca. May 12, 1975, in http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/vietnam.htm). Similarly, the financial burden of the War called political judgment into question; doubts were rife about the tactics, and ever decision was scrutinized on the nightly news, with most Americans feeling that “we simply did not belong there,†(Davidson, 1991, inclusive). More than anything, the Vietnam War emphasized what was wrong on the home front, and that a superpower was not always a superpower '' tremendous might would not always prevail.
For example, hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools closed throughout the United States due to a student strike of four million students. The event further affected the public opinion over the role of the United States in the Vietnam War. The underestimation of the enemy played a big factor on why we lost the war. The United States had become very arrogant over the centuries from dominating the wars they were in, so when they started fighting in Vietnam, they had no idea what they were in for. George Herring has said “had the United States looked all over the world in 1965 it might not have been able to find a more difficult place to fight” (280), and I find this to be true.
The widespread media-coverage of the war that was not there during the Korean War also contributed to the negative image of Vietnam Veterans by providing media coverage of events like the My Lai Massacre, in which US soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese citizens. Even though both wars were both limited proxy wars whose conflict’s root lay in the cold war, the two wars differ in the ways that they were fought, the outcomes of the wars and consequently the effects that the wars had domestically and internationally. The Vietnam War, having been fought by a post-World War II generation has greatly changed the widespread social opinion on the topic of war and marked the beginning of a new era. The soldiers who fought in Korea were widely regarded as heroes in our country and those who were in Vietnam were not, even though they were serving their country in the same
The Vietnam War affected both the social and political views of this nation. This war took one great nation and completely divided it in two. As shown by examples in this paper, the political and social changes were drastic enough and demonstrated by enough people that it was able to move an entire generation. Even today, the different views of the Vietnam War are seen in the way the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is viewed by many today: “ A somber reminder of the loss of too many young Americans, and of what the war did to the United States and its messianic belief in its own overweening virtue.” [ (Sitikoff, 1999)
It would seem it moved a lot of people and swayed their opinion on the war with every passing day. What we would call a military victory during the Tet offensive in Vietnam would only seal the coffin on the president Lyndon brown Johnson leaving a massive credibility gap between the people and the government causing him to no run for
Televisions were considered to be anti-war influences because the media showed horrible things happening in Vietnam that cause the public to give less support. The media not only affected the nature of the war to the public but it also changes the minds of Americans on their own people. "Critics in the government, the military, and elsewhere claim that the media was dominated by the antiwar journalists who poisoned the American public against the war by delivering superficial and negative coverage of the conflict. (pg 177 Walter). This shows how Walter noticed that people attentions were grabbed by the over coverage the news released.
They were placed into a war that from the start was impossible to win due to many circumstances and situations starting with the rules of war. The rules of war had a major negative affect on our troops in Vietnam, which created more struggle and confusion then there already was. The frustration level was at an all time high with American troops and they started to get very irritable. A lot of soldiers lost their minds because the war took its toll mentally. Someone was bound to snap and that was exactly what happened at My Lai.
It often came down to hand to hand contact and quick thinking. This war scared almost all the soldiers for life, the ones who lived through it all at least. The total number of US casualties in the Vietnam War was 58,220. The ones who did live didn’t get a welcome home either. When the Vietnam Veterans returned back home they were treated worse than some of the terrorists now a days.
The Vietnam War Millions of people suffered, more than fifty thousand soldiers and innocent bystanders died, hundreds protested, and one war lost. The Vietnam War was a melting pot of controversy, nonviolent protests, and unwanted attention due to the U.S. intervention in Vietnamese affairs, in attempt to contain communism. The American people were lied to by one of the presidents during the start of the Vietnam War. This president was Dwight D. Eisenhower, who told America it was for a good cause. Turning out for the war to actually hurt us rather than help us, The Vietnam War proved to be a common topic among writers and citizens who felt the need to fight against the war, drafting young, and U.S. intervention in foreign policies.